ESD and economic participation in small states

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ESD and economic participation in small states

Sustainable development is a concept with an inherent tension. If we look at development as being linked to growth, as we often do. And if we recognize our planet as a closed system, which we often fail to. Then the tension becomes evident--within a closed system, growth can't be sustained indefinitely. Inhabitants of small

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islands of inspiration

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islands of inspiration

Below is the text of my presentation to the 18CCEM Ministerial Roundtable on Bridging the Gap Between Policy and Practice in Education for Sustainable Development.  

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Greetings, honorable ministers and esteemed delegates. I am honoured to have the opportunity to speak with you. 

I was invited here to share with you a report I worked on earlier this year, funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat. The report analyzed the implementation of Education for Sustainable Development, or ESD, in Small Island Developing States. This study originated from discussions around the impacts of climate change, to which small states are particularly vulnerable.  Recognizing that small states comprise a significant proportion of the member countries of the

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for what are we preparing our young people?

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for what are we preparing our young people?

The current preoccupation in educational reform seems to be with trying to do the same things we've always done, but better. I'm thrilled to have been invited to speak in a couple of sessions at the 18th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Mauritius, on the topic of education's role in sustainable development. Below is the text from the first session, a panel presentatation at the Stakeholders' Forum, looking at skills for the future: "Education for Tomorrow's World: For what are we preparing our young people?" My thesis was that we need to adjust our view of education's relationship to the future. We should not think about education as "preparation for" and try to come up with a list of knowledge and skills for the future (which are destined to be obsolete), but rather, to focus on education as the cultivation of more deeply held dispositions which will help students respond to

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